JOHANNESBURG – The Environmental Affairs Department has described Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba's remarks that distributing sanitary pads to young girls is a waste of government resources as "lunacy".

This week, Minister Nomvula Mokonyane visited the Mandosi Combined School in KwaZulu-Natal to hand over various resources to pupils including desks and sanitary pads.

Mashaba received backlash on Twitter for his criticism of Mokonyane where he assumed she handed the sanitary pads to Grade R pupils, suggesting that this will make the learners focus on sex rather than education.

This for me this is not about laziness, but deliberate destroying the future of our youth. You get kids to focus on sex, instead of Education https://t.co/QmGNHVCY2v